Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of server information handling system management, and more particularly to server information handling system wireless management and topology.
Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Server information handling systems are often deployed in data centers held vertically or horizontally stacked in rack or blade chassis. Data centers typically have specialized environments that provide server information handling systems infrastructure for normal operations, such as specialized cooling systems, power systems, storage systems and network communications systems. In order to reduce operating costs, server information handling systems typically are supported in thin chassis, such as 1U of height, vertically stacked in racks disposed at cooling airflow intake locations. A large data center will have rows of racks in one or more rooms where each rack has 44U or more of height so that a large data center may include thousands of server information handling systems.
Generally, managing server information handling systems in a large data center is performed both remotely and with an information technology specialist physically present within the data center. For example, each server information handling system includes a baseboard management controller (BMC) having an “out-of-band” network interface that communicates through a management network with a management administration information handling system so that information technology specialists can remotely power up and down server systems and perform maintenance, such as operating system, application and firmware updates. In addition to supporting management network communications, information technology specialists also may interact directly with the server information handling system BMC through a small touchscreen at the system bezel or with a hardwire interface, such as using KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) device interfaced with a USB connection. Often at initial deployment of a server information handling system in a rack, information technology specialists configure the BMC through the bezel interface before the BMC can interact through the management network. Although remote management through the management network is generally sufficient to handle many server management and maintenance tasks once initial deployment is complete, some task do call for physical interaction with BMCs and server information handling systems. For example, internal components of a server information handling system may need replacement or repair followed by hands-on software configuration.
One difficulty faced by information technology specialists working in a data center is locating a server information handling system of interest, such as a system in need of physical maintenance. Once a server information handling system is installed in a rack and interfaced with a management network, its physical location becomes largely irrelevant until component repair or replacement is needed. Maintaining a precise inventory of server information handling system locations in a large data center often presents a challenge over time as the data center grows, changes infrastructure and replaces installed server systems. In addition, installed systems often have repairs made over time that replace components with new parts, such as cooling fans, power supplies, hard disk drives, network interface cards and other types of hardware or software devices. BMCs have some capability to track component inventory for components under a BMC's management, provided an information technology administrator knows the BMC name and address of a server information handling system that has a component failure, and provided the information technology specialist is able to confirm that an available inventory matches the components in the server system at hand.
Data centers use various techniques to attempt to accurately track server information handling system locations and component inventory. Conventional inventory controls will work if rigorously enforced as server information handling systems move to different positions in a data center or have components replaced. Often data center information technology administrators face time pressure to keep adequate processing resources available so that inventory controls tend to fall to the wayside when system failures arise. Other techniques attempt to track server information handling system positions by using triangulation with radio signals or indications on racks that BMCs can read to provide feedback of a physical location. Reliance on specialized equipment and limited accuracy tend to restrict the usefulness of such inventory techniques.